We arrive in Kyoto
The rail path that Josh and I took on our way to Kyoto
As we were riding along, we checked out the diagram of the shinkansen (bullet train). Green cars had the fancy accommodations, but our rail passes covered only the more proletarian means of travel so we were restricted to the non-green cars.
The train to Kyoto was almost empty so we had room to move around. Here I had jumped over to the other side to get a video of the panorama outside which also enabled me to show where we were sitting and gave a good view of the rolling cart backpacks we were using.
A few clips of the countryside as we traveled. According to my GPS, we were speeding along at about 160 MPH (250 KPH)
If you look at the map above, these are a few photos taken about mid-way through the trip, right arown Hamamatsu
If you look at the map above, these are a few photos taken about mid-way through the trip, right arown Hamamatsu
If you look at the map above, these are a few photos taken about mid-way through the trip, right arown Hamamatsu
While I had problems with the language, Josh had picked up several phrases seemingly overnight which was quite useful. Following this little video intro, Josh had approached a saleslady advertising chocolates and asked "Eigo o hanase mas ka?" (Do you speak English?). However, as this girl only came up to about Josh’s chest, she shrank back, obviously intimidated, shaking her head and attempted to hide her face. Not wishing to leave with such a bad impression, Josh made one more attempt asking where we could find an information desk. She immediately brightened, smiled broadly, then ran to a stairwell with Josh in pursuit. She crouched down to better point out a location down the stairway on the lower floor and indicated that we should go down there and to the right. As had become second nature to us, Josh politely bowed and thanked her for her trouble and we continued on our way.
After a little help from the info desk, we found our hotel, which was just across the street from the train station.
It was now about 11:30 AM. We had found our hotel, but as we could not check in until 1 PM, we headed out to find lunch and to check out the local sights and do a few of the tourist things.
I just love Japan. I have no idea what was being advertised here, but everywhere you look has the big-eyed anime characters.
Once again, just by randomly wandering around, we happened on what would become our "go to" place for meals while we stayed in Kyoto.
By the way, the exchange rate was around 1 dollar to 100 yen, so you can pretty much directly translate the prices into dollars. For example, the 450 above means about $4.50.
Initially, we were completely baffled. We entered the restaurant, but found no cashier or wait staff to take our order. There was only a window counter opening directly into the kitchen and a vending machine.
We watched the patrons carefully to see how to order our meal. They would insert money into the vending machine and press one of two buttons at the top that Josh and I figured must mean dine-in or take-out. They would then make their selection and a cardboard ticket would drop out the dispenser. The customer would then hand the ticket to the cooks behind the counter. In a few minutes a waitress would bring the meal to your table. There was no need to select a beverage as the only thing available was all the green tea you could drink, which suited me fine.
We decided on the pork katsu (550 yen) and pressed what we hoped were the correct buttons. Almost everyone selected the same button (of the initial two) so we did as well. It must have worked because our katsu showed up almost immediately.
I would have loved to eat at a little shop like this but, alas, it was closed.
As we continued our little circle around the streets surrounding the hotel, we stopped at a video game room to see what games Japan had to offer. They were surprisingly easy to understand and Josh quickly mastered one of the offerings.
30 minutes later and it was just about 1 PM. We headed back in the direction of the hotel, ready to check in.
We finally checked into our room. The hotel offered only cabled Ethernet so I set up my laptop as a wireless access point so we could connect via our handhelds. This let us check our email, text chat, etc. Despite our plans to sample the Kyoto nightlife, we once again crashed and burned early due to the jetlag. And once again we woke up around 2 AM hungry so we walked down to the vending machine restaurant to have a late night meal.
Click here to move on to our first tour day in Kyoto:
http://phoenixanime.org/Japan-2008/Our-first-day-in-Kyoto/